On BBC Newsnight the panel of journalists and politicians were discussing Elon Muskās emphatic salute at US President Donald Trumpās triumphal inauguration rally in Washington.
Probably most people have seen Muskās Dr Strangelove moment by now but none of the panel would say what it most clearly was: a Nazi salute.
Musk did not just involuntarily raise his right arm and point his fingers to heaven. He slammed his right hand into his chest, paused for a long moment, and then thrust his arm outwards as tens of millions watched nationwide, and thousands of Trump supporters in the auditorium cheered.
At this point, many people were no doubt watching stunned and wondering if they had just hallucinated Muskās gesture, but helpfully, he then turned his back and did the same salute to those in the seats behind him.
And yet somehow Gabriel Gatehouse, a seasoned BBC observer of US politics and the far right, played down the moment, as did the great sword-carrying failed Conservative leadership contender Penny Mordaunt. Gatehouse suggested it could be a āRoman saluteā and compared it to a cartoon frog that appeared in the 2016 presidential campaign.
I wanna see those democrats salute too! I heard a bunch of people claim this but I canāt find a video :/
Itās because theyāre everywhere. Most people will see them & know youāre not trustworthy, but youāll still be pretending they donāt exist.
There arenāt any. Get cancer. In case youre an easily offending snowflake, that word combination was me sending my heart out to you. Very common american expresion everyone does. You heard all the dems say the same thing as well, very easy to find.
Pro-genocide establishment Democratsā¦ āTheyāre the Nazis! Get cancer if you donāt agree!!!ā
Oh now you understand what common gestures and phrases mean suddenly.
Why you spending your first 24h as a woman getting your panties in a bunch? You seen like an easily offended snowflake who just got owned to me.
You totally owned me. Oh you got me so good, Iāll never recover. You can go tell your teenage friends that you owned timewarp on Lemmy. Youāll be so popular & youāll get all the sex.
Are you on meth or something, lol? Youāre unintelligible
Theyāre claiming thereās videos of democrats doing the nazi salute everywhere. And they claim that I am not to be trusted because Iāve not seen any
Itās because there arenāt any. All the stupid responses are photos which can easily be taken out of context. Just a frame out of a video can be sufficient to achieve the look.
But what he did left zero room for misinterpretation. Thereās no need to isolate the movementāitās right there plain as day. He did it twice last to make sure everyone saw it. We will not find any Dems doing that because it would be political suicide to do so.
Anyone trying to claim that was anything but a seig heil is full of shit
Iāve seen stills of Democrats waving to the crowd. In every one that Iāve seen they were exonerated by the context. The context of Elon Muskās salute - in addition to his open flirtation with out and proud Neo-Nazis on Twitter - only makes it more damning. There is absolutely no way you can interpret it as a mistake.